News and reviews from across the worldwide Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly known as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) and Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) in India)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

“So this is the third and last post about our sustainable energy project… well, last one for the moment.

“If you’ve read the first post, you’ll know that we’re in the middle of a project to move to wood pellet boiler and solar thermal heating for our space heating and hot water. I submitted two grants / loans proposals today. So either cross your fingers or chant mantras on our behalf - or both!

“If you’ve read the second post, you’ll know that even with our current very old and inefficient oil-fired boilers, our carbon footprint in the community is half the UK average. Which is great to know and what I was hoping would emerge from the carbon calculations I’ve been doing. Definitely a benefit from nine of us sharing our living space in a community together.

“What you don’t know yet is how much better our carbon footprint will be if we can get the funding to help cover a proportion of the wood pellet boiler and solar thermal system installation costs. So now I’ve used the footprint software to calculate what our footprint would have been in 2008 if we’d had had the renewable sources in place.

“I was on a seminar last month where the head of the Sustainable Energy Division of E-on UK Ltd was one of the speakers. One of his remarks has really stuck with me. He said - with regard to changing our behaviour in the UK :

“If everyone does a little …….

And then he paused. You’ve probably finished the sentence. But maybe not the way he finished it ….
“If everyone does a little, we’ll only achieve a little.

To minimise the impact of climate change, we need to reduce UK carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. And that means 80% from every one of us.”

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Triratna Buddhist Community

The Triratna Buddhist Community - formerly known as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) - was founded in 1967 by Sangharakshita. It is now an international movement with activities in more than 20 countries, including India. The Triratna Buddhist Community is a non-sectarian Buddhist movement which seeks promote the practice of Buddhism in a form appropriate to the modern world.

Triratna means "Three Jewels", specifically the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which are the central foci of a Buddhist's life and practice. They've long been represented in our logo and we're delighted that our name will now reflect them as well.